Every Saturday Night Live sports host, ranked
By Hunter Cooke
23. Wayne Gretzky
The undoubted best player in the history of hockey appeared in Season 14 of SNL, to a cavalcade of Noriega and hockey trade jokes. The year was 1989, and arguably the biggest trade in hockey history had just gone down: Wayne Gretzky was leaving the Edmonton Oilers and headed out west, to the land of the Los Angeles Kings and superstardom.
Naturally, the set was comprised of more than a few jokes on celebrities trying to understand hockey. The most memorable skit in the whole thing was titled “Celebrity Hockey Ideas”, and it took the form of movie stars making ridiculous suggestions to Gretzky, like “why don’t they just get a guy holding up a plywood sign in place of the goalie to get more players on the ice to score”. It was funny, but not due to Gretzky.
He’s a more than a little awkward in his monologue, and it’s pretty obvious that doing this is not for him.
Next: 22. Michael Phelps